Psycho-Babble Medication | about biological treatments | Framed
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preaching about meds

Posted by Francesco on September 27, 2003, at 12:35:20

I'm going to be polemic so, you have been advised : )

Most antidepressants meds are likely to cause sexual dysfunctions. Most doctors are not used to advise the patients about this possibility (just in the case you're the one who won't have SD).

This is fairly uncorrect because it doesn't allow you to take an informed decision based upon pros and cons. The doctor advocate for him the right to decide what is good for you. He establishes that a possibile relief from depression/anxiety is always worth the probabile SD. This should be in case a decision of yours.

Moreover it's quite stupid. Most people will get depressed in discovering they're experiencing SD so vanishing the eventual benefits of the cure.

(With the possibile exception of those who suffered of "major depression". But those are nowadays just a part of the people who take meds).

If you have sexual dysfunctions and you're not taking meds you have a disturb that is supposed should be cured. If you're on meds, it's *just* a side effect.

Moreover sexual health is clearly co-related with well-being (or with the sensation of it, which is the same). I can't understand how you can *cure* something wrecking something else that has a so tight relation with the former.

To say "there is nothing else" isn't a proper answer. It's not psychiatrists' fault if there aren't alternatives. Their fault is to declaim that they can *cure* depression.

To say "sexual side effects are reversibile" isn't a proper answer too because most of us will have to take meds for life.

Moreover "lack of interest in sex" is one of the diagnostical criteria of depression which is quite funny (just like weight gain, sleeping too much, and almost all the meds' "side-effects").

I'm not complaining only about the induced lack of a pleasure. We really don't know how this lack affects the rest of one's life considering the biological importance of the sexual functions (it's not just like having "dry mouth").

It's not so weird to speculate, according to Darwinist theories, that sex is strongly related with drives, for example. If our "inconscious" purpose is to spread up our genes and if we have this ability impaired this could change our entire attitude to life, even if we're not aware of it. But I'm aware this is just a speculation.

Obviously sex-side effects is just an example. Apathy induced by SSRIs is another. Claiming to be able to cure depression with something that causes apathy is as bizarre as claiming to be able to cure diabetes with candies.

Once again I want to stress that my argument is not "you shouldn't take meds" or "they have to invent something better" but: they have to stop claiming that antidepressants are a *cure*. In the best hipothesys they are a palliative, just like *other* drugs.

Which is the difference between legal drugs and illegal drugs ? The former are legal while the last are not. This is a so evident point that I won't spend more words on it.

Are we so sure that all the illegal drugs are more dangerous than the legal ? What about tobacco ? What about antipsychotics ? I don't know who drew the line, but I think it has *nothing* to do with harms/benefits and very much with economical/political aspects.

This really scares me. Given this premises how can I trust in "them" when they say this or that is the right med for me ? Maybe low doses of cocaine would be more useful all considered, who knows ?

I think it's just not an 'addiction' issue. Benzos are (supposed to be) addictive and are considered a med. Cigarettes & alcohol are very addictive but you can buy them without being jailed.

Moreover addiction is just ONE issue, it's not the whole story. There are other factors that should be considered as "quality of life expected". (I mean ... addiction is bad because it can worsen the quality of life of a human being, it's not bad because it's BAD)

Antidepressants are not physical 'addictive' but some of them can cause very bad withdrawal syntoms and, if they work, a strong psycological "addiction" (like everything that works). So, why are they SO radically different from, for ex., cocaine ? Only for the tolerance issue ?

Ok, sometimes you have to augment your antidepressant dose to reach the desidered effect and sometimes antidepressants stops to work, but let's say this has nothing to do with tolerance. Who cares ?

I think that the main reason for which they consider something a drug and something else a med is that drugs give pleasure while meds only give pain relief.

Having relief from pain can be allowed (if you have a *disease*, never mind if invented for this purpose) but only if, in doing this, you don't experience positive pleasure ... because you have to *deserve* pleasure otherwise you’re a junkie. If there is any logic in this I can’t see it.

Before stopping babbling let me say one more thing. One of the worst nonsensens I’ve heard is that antidepressants don’t change your personality. If personality is a by-product of brain (psychiatrists usually don’t believe in soul) and if meds affect your brain changing the level of neurotrasmitters and so on, how can they *not* change your personality ?

Let’s suppose there is a *normal* person who at a certain point of its life gets depressed. Let’s suppose also that is depression is dued to lack of serotonin. If he takes Prozac will he get back to the previous state ? Fairly improbable. Even if we assume that Prozac only affects serotonin level he’ll probably will have more (or less) serotonin circulating in his brain than before. He would be quite lucky if he’ll get the SAME level of serotonin he was once used to have.

I know this is quite semplicistic but what I’m trying to say is that your brain after Prozac can’t be the same brain you had before depression (or that this eventuality is remote). So what IS semplicistic is assuming that a med can restore your compromised brain functions. It changes them, which is quite different.

Ok, I had nothing better to do this afternoon : )


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Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:Francesco thread:263736
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030923/msgs/263736.html